It happened in...
Is Benitez the new Mourinho?
THURS 25 OCT
I remember when Rafa first arrived at Anfield. I
remember thinking he was a jolly sort, eager to please, and straightforward.But very soon he showed his desire to get into the sort of headgames and assorted bullshittery favoured by the likes of Jose Mourinho, and so began their prolonged handbagging.
Now, with Jose gone, Rafa is perhaps trying to fill the Mourinho-shaped hole by resorting to pronouncements that I simply can't get my head round.
His defence of his more eyebrow-raising tactics (like, not a month after firmly stating his intention of bringing the Premier League title back to Anfield, 'resting' his new £25 million for an important PL game, yet inexplicably playing him 3 days later in a (more important?) third round Carling cup tie) has been pretty much "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
But after Liverpool's 2-1 loss to Besiktas in the Champions League last night, Liverpool lie in last place in their group with just one point from three games. "Clearly we need the 3 points," Rafa had said before the game. What's he saying after it?
Here's what he said -
"I was pleased with the performance. When you have 28 attempts on goal as the away side and nearly 60% of possession, that should usually be enough to win the match."Yes, it bloody should be. It's downright shameful that it wasn't. Talking of the remaining three games, which Liverpool could win and still not qualify -
"If we continue to play like we did in this match, with so much dominance, we have a chance."Yes, if we continue to squander 28 goal-scoring opportunities per game and 60% of the possession, we're sure to make it.
Where Benitez once appeared cute and astute, he's beginning to appear delusional. One of Mourinho's least endearing traits was his utter failure to show any connection with reality in his summing up of his team's deficiencies. Tell us you're not turning into him, Rafa. Say it ain't so.
"The players worked hard and you cannot blame them."Ah. It is so. Can't blame the manager, can't blame the players...
"The fans will be positive we can do it after seeing the game."Which rather sounds like the 'Say it often enough and you'll begin to believe it' school of thought. Personally, seeing Liverpool bottom of their Champions League group at the halfway stage with only a lone point, it's not what this fan's thinking.
Chasing the sun
THURS 25 OCT
If the weather were like this all year, we say repeatedly to each other, it would be perfect. The autumn days are sunny and warm, the nights are chilly enough to mean a duvet is super cosy.Which makes it pretty difficult to drag yourself out of one at 4.30 in the morning. But that's what I did this week. Twice.
Watching the sun rise over the nearby Aso volcanic crater would be spectacular at any time of year, but particularly so now, when the caldera is full of mist. So I hit the road.
The first morning was not the spectacular success I'd hoped for. I couldn't see many stars when I jumped in the car, but convinced myself the cloud cover would clear by the time I got where I was going. Of course I was wrong.
Even so, when the rising sun did manage to poke through the clouds, everything lit up beautifully.
Even my co-spectators.
But I didn't get the pictures that I was after. So with the forecast promising clear skies for the following morning, I dragged myself up at a silly hour again.
It is said that the outline of the central peaks of Mount Aso resembles a sleeping buddha.
This morning I slept in until nearly 6.30, when my duvet-wrapped bliss was rudely interrupted, long before the alarm, by a cat sitting on my back and repeatedly tapping me on the shoulder (really). When I went downstairs to serve her breakfast, the sun was already streaming through the kitchen window, having risen over the mountains while we slept.
(Check out all the pictures from this set in a Flickr slideshow!)
Here be dragons
WEDS 17 OCT
What does the small, sleepy town of Mifune in Kumamoto prefecture have that Tokyo wishes it had? Giant lizards, that's what.While Godzilla takes the pop culture limelight, real dinosaurs are being unearthed in Kyushu.
Reuters reported this weekend,
"An 85 million-year-old dinosaur skull has been found in southwestern Japan, one of the oldest discoveries of its kind in the country, the Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.With Mifune being just down the road, I made the short journey down there to see what dinosaur evidence I could find...
The fossilized skull, belonging to a herbivore called hadrosaurid, was unearthed on a mountain in the town of Mifune in Kumamoto prefecture, Kyodo said, quoting an official of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum."
And it's everywhere. They've been digging up dinosaur bones for years in Mifune, most notably in 1979 when Tyrannosaurus Rex remains were found, and the proud symbols decorate the whole town.
Dinosaurs adorn the bridge...
...and even railings.
They even warn children of the dangers of crossing the road (in the cutest way possible, of course).
Heck they're even on the drain covers!
And then of course there is the Mifune Dinosaur Museum. Not a huge or elaborate affair, but informative nonetheless.
So you can waste your time visiting Tokyo, where you won't meet Godzilla, or you can come to Kumamoto prefecture where you will come face to face with a T-rex!
Getting the Groundforce crew in
TUES 09 OCT
The garden got a bit wild over the summer. It was just always too hot to go out there and do anything about it. So it started to look a bit neglected.
But now autumn's here, we've been out there and done Alan Titchmarsh proud.
All action heroines
TUES 09 OCT
It's all go in our house...
Higanbana
TUES 02 OCT
Now is also the time of year that Japan's countryside sees a splash of colour. The intense greens of summer are beginning to give way to other shades. The rice fields are going yellow as the farmers prepare for harvest, and around the edges of the fields there are clumps of higanbana springing up.
Higanbana (higan, the period around the autumn equinox + hana, flower) are known as red spider lilies in English (and Lycoris radiata in Latin, for the horticulturists). And just in case you might need to know, the bulbs are quite poisonous if eaten.
Back to September?